The invention relates to a multi-chamber installation for treating objects under vacuum, in which an evacuation system that is connected to the chambers. Moreover, the present invention relates to a method for evacuating said installation as well as an evacuation system therefor.
Multi-chamber installations of the aforementioned kind are known. They serve the purpose of degassing, coating (metallization, for example) or etching substrates. Known methods of this kind include chemical vapor deposition (CVD). and processes for producing digital video disks (DVDs). Commonly, such an installation is equipped with a process chamber, with one or several pre-chambers with load lock function being located upstream. The load locks are opened for the period of time while introducing or removing substrates, so that high pressure variations occur differing from chamber to chamber.
In the instance of a multi-chamber installation equipped with two chambers, it is known to employ two separate vacuum pumps in order to be able to evacuate as rapidly as possible each of the chambers after closing the corresponding load lock.
It is the task of the present invention to reduce in the instance of multi-chamber installations of the aforementioned kind or similar kind, the complexity for the evacuation system.